THIS WEEK: Marriage and Divorce Bill could bounce back Groups of women activists and civil society organisations are quietly lobbying government and MPs to re-table the contentious Marriage and Divorce Bill to scale down on the countless problems arising from marital strife. Uganda Women Parliamentary Association (UWOPA), Uganda Women Network …

Freetown, Sierra Leone | AFP | Women from Sierra Leone can now pass on their nationality to their children, following the passage of what women’s rights groups said Friday was a landmark change in the law for gender equality. Until the new Citizenship Amendment Act was passed on Wednesday, Sierra Leonean …

United Nations, United States | AFP | A global treaty banning nuclear weapons was adopted at the United Nations on Friday but nuclear powers Britain, France and the United States dismissed it as out of step with reality at a time when the world is grappling with the North Korea crisis. …

  Paris, France | AFP | Long-overdue presidential and legislative polls can only be held at the end of year in troubled Democratic Republic of Congo, the head of the national election commission said Friday. “It will not be possible before December,” Corneille Nangaa told reporters in Kinshasa. Elections are …

Hamburg, Germany | AFP |Donald Trump pressed Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Friday on allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 US election in their eagerly-awaited first face-to-face talks, according to US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. “The president opened the meeting with President Putin by raising the concerns of …

Banjul, Gambia | AFP | The head of a West African force maintaining security in The Gambia told AFP Friday that army officials loyal to veteran former leader Yahya Jammeh were plotting against the new government. West African troops were first sent to The Gambia in January to compel Jammeh to …

Jerusalem, Undefined | AFP |Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed a UNESCO vote Friday declaring old Hebron an endangered world heritage site and announced a $1-million cut in funding to the United Nations. “It is another delusional decision by UNESCO,” Netanyahu said in Hebrew, in a video posted online. “This …

Hamburg, Germany | AFP |Russia and the United States have agreed to a ceasefire in southern Syria starting from midday on Sunday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced Friday in Hamburg. “Today in Amman Russian, American and Jordanian experts… agreed on a memorandum of understanding to create a de-escalation zone” …

Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | A military court in DR Congo on Thursday handed stiff jail terms, including life imprisonment, to eight soldiers for killing civilians in the violence-wracked central Kasai region following mounting pressure from the UN. In less than a year, brutal violence in four central Kasai provinces …

Paris, France | AFP | European plane maker Airbus said Thursday it received 203 firm orders for aircraft in the first six months of this year and delivered 306 jetliners. Airbus said in a statement that it received orders for 138 medium-haul A320 and long-haul A330 aircraft in June alone …